View source for Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity

The '''Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity''' is a collection of ninety-one mostly academic individuals of various nationalities who seek to advance the bodily integrity of children. The group describes itself:
<blockquote>
We are physicians, ethicists, nurse-midwives, public health professionals, legal scholars, political scientists, anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and feminists from Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas with interdisciplinary expertise in child genital cutting practices across a wide range of cultural contexts. Although we do not necessarily share a single policy perspective with respect to such practices, nor a uniform moral assessment of every feature of them, we are united in a concern about widespread inaccuracies, inconsistencies, double standards, and Western cultural bias in the prevailing discourses on genital cutting of children.<ref name="brussels2019">{{REFjournal
 |last=Brussels Collaboration on Bodily Integrity
 |first=
 |author-link=
 |etal=no
 |title=Medically Unnecessary Genital Cutting and the Rights of the Child: Moving Toward Consensus
 |trans-title=
 |language=English
 |journal=Am J Bioeth
 |location=
 |date=2019-10
 |volume=19
 |issue=10
 |pages=17-28
 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265161.2019.1643945
 |archived=
 |quote=
 |pubmedID=31557092
 |pubmedCID=
 |DOI= 10.1080/15265161.2019.1643945 
 |accessdate=2020-08-05
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

The conference was convened at Brussels in the Fall of 2019 by [[Attorneys for the Rights of the Child]]. More than 90 papers were presented.<ref>{{REFnews
 |title=Does an international campaign to ban brit mila contribute to antisemitism?
 |url=https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Does-an-international-campaign-to-ban-brit-mila-contribute-to-antisemitism-629796
 |last=Samuels
 |first=Shimon
 |coauthors=
 |publisher=The Jerusalem Post
 |website=https://www.jpost.com
 |date=2020-05-31
 |accessdate=2020-08-05
 |quote=
}}</ref> The groups argue that [[Circumcision| male]], [[Female circumcision| female]], and [[intersex]] cutting must be considered together.<ref name="brussels2019" />

The ethical question concerning cutting of children's genital organs is long-standing,<ref name="hill2003">{{REFjournal
 |last=Hill
 |first=George
 |init=G
 |author-link=George Hill
 |title=Can anyone authorize the nontherapeutic permanent alteration of a child's body?
 |journal=The American Journal of Bioethics
 |date=2003
 |season=Spring
 |volume=3
 |issue=2
 |pages=16-8
 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/George-Hill-3/publication/371599857_Can_Anyone_Authorize_the_Nontherapeutic_Permanent_Alteration_of_a_Child's_Body/links/648b8819c41fb852dd0949be/Can-Anyone-Authorize-the-Nontherapeutic-Permanent-Alteration-of-a-Childs-Body.pdf
 |quote=
 |pubmedID=14635628
 |pubmedCID=
 |DOI=10.1162/152651603766436342
 |format=PDF
 |accessdate=2024-08-31
}}</ref> but never has been satisfactorily resolved.

Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations for the Wiesenthal Center, in a letter to [[J. Steven Svoboda]] of [[Attorneys for the Rights of the Child]], expressed concern that the Brussels Collaboration threatened the [[Abrahamic covenant]], which has already been debunked by Professor [[Leonard Glick]],<ref>{{REFnews
 |title=Wiesenthal Center slams international campaign to ban circumcision
 |url=https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/279607
 |last=Divinsky
 |first=Eitan
 |coauthors=
 |publisher=Arutz Sheva
 |website=https://www.israelnationalnews.com
 |date=2024-08-31
 |accessdate=2020-08-05
 |quote=
}}</ref> however, he failed to acknowledge that boys born into Jewish families would be major beneficiaries of bodily integrity derived from the protection of their [[human rights]].

A second more detailed statement, published in August 2024, has 155 authors.

{{PUB}}
* {{REFjournal
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 |title=Medically Unnecessary Genital Cutting and the Rights of the Child: Moving Toward Consensus
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 |language=English
 |journal=Am J Bioeth
 |location=
 |date=2019-10
 |volume=19
 |issue=10
 |pages=17-28
 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/15265161.2019.1643945?needAccess=true
 |archived=
 |quote=
 |pubmedID=31557092
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 |DOI= 10.1080/15265161.2019.1643945 
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* {{REFjournal
 |last=The Brussels Collaboration on Bodily integrity
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 |init2=
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 |etal=yes
 |title=Genital modifications in prepubescent minors: When May Clinicians Ethically Proceed?
 |language=
 |journal=Am J Bioeth
 |location=
 |date=2024-08
 |volume=
 |issue=
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}}
{{SEEALSO}}
* [[Ethics of non-therapeutic child circumcision]]
{{REF}}

[[Category:Intactivism organization]]
[[Category:Human rights]]
[[Category:Medical ethics]]
[[Category:Intersex]]
[[Category:Antisemitism]]